Housing Benefit changes

richidy_rich

Hi,
I've heard that the Housing benefit is chaging again and if your under occuping a house then they will deduct from your benefit!!

Is this for everyone??

I'm in a housing association house, will this apply to me or just to Private Renting??

I'm confused by all these changes now.

Any help would be grrreat.

Cheers,
Rich.

paddedjohn

Private rents already have to pay for under occupying, soon anyone with a spare room in a council house will see a reduction in their housing benefit for any spare rooms they have.

Pippin12

Yes Richidy - it will apply to you in HA. There is a 14% charge if you have one spare bedroom and 25% if you have two.

PippaGirl_2

Out of interest I just googled how the new Bedroom tax will affect Foster carers and as I expected this will affect them hugely. So, if Foster Carers have to downsize as they cannot afford to pay the BT then the country, already short of foster carers, will lose out?

bright_side

The 14% is deducted from your rent before housing benefit is calculated, so if your rent is £100 a week, you will have to pay £14 on top of any rent you pay now.

Dunroamin

PippaGirl wrote: »

Out of interest I just googled how the new Bedroom tax will affect Foster carers and as I expected this will affect them hugely. So, if Foster Carers have to downsize as they cannot afford to pay the BT then the country, already short of foster carers, will lose out?

Given how low rents are in social housing and the fact that foster carer rates are now quite generous, I doubt that it will make much difference.

PippaGirl_2

Depends on the rate of 'skills fees' - most new foster carers only get the foster child allowances and then if some of that goes towards paying the top up rent that foster child will be worse off than had s/he been placed in a home without the BT. Yes, skills fees are added as the foster carer progresses through their training, but it will still will mean one foster carer would be receiving less skills allowance than another with the same training/qualifications/experience than another not paying the BT. I think there will be an impact on a reduction of carers but not sure how much.

fizzytrinket

Dunroamin wrote: »

Given how low rents are in social housing .

Sweeping statement!

puddy

PippaGirl wrote: »

Out of interest I just googled how the new Bedroom tax will affect Foster carers and as I expected this will affect them hugely. So, if Foster Carers have to downsize as they cannot afford to pay the BT then the country, already short of foster carers, will lose out?

the fostering allowance is more than enough to cover for this, it may even be increased by local authorities or agencies to compensate seeing as foster carers who rent are rare (cue the number of carers who rent saying 'we rent and are on HB')

puddy

PippaGirl wrote: »

Depends on the rate of 'skills fees' - most new foster carers only get the foster child allowances and then if some of that goes towards paying the top up rent that foster child will be worse off than had s/he been placed in a home without the BT. Yes, skills fees are added as the foster carer progresses through their training, but it will still will mean one foster carer would be receiving less skills allowance than another with the same training/qualifications/experience than another not paying the BT. I think there will be an impact on a reduction of carers but not sure how much.

its true that some carers get less than others but the amounts they receive do not in any represent the cost of feeding, clothing, holidays, bills, transport, they are more than this

Dunroamin

fizzytrinket wrote: »

Sweeping statement!

Accurate statement!